Will Windows continue to bloat or can it go on a diet?

Some people are speculating that one of these days, Microsoft will do a radical overhaul of an operating system that has remained based on the same code since the mid 1990s. When it comes down to it, all of the current Microsoft OS offerings are direct descendants of this code, having only gotten more and more bloated along the way. If recent demonstrations and Microsoft sources are to be believed, Windows 7 will not be what the MinWin proponents are hoping for.

Some people are speculating that one of these days, Microsoft will do a radical overhaul of an operating system that has remained based on the same code since the mid 1990s. When it comes down to it, all the current Microsoft OS offerings are direct descendants of this code, having only gotten more and more bloated along the way. If recent demonstrations and Microsoft sources are to be believed, Windows 7 will not be what the MinWin proponents are hoping for.The Myth of "MinWin" and a Thinner Windows 7 (InfoWorld)Late in 2007, there was talk around the Microsoft camp that the rewritten MinWin kernel would appear in Windows 7, as Microsoft acknowledged that the old kernel code does not have an "unlimited life span." However, with the apparent acceleration of the Windows 7 project, it seems unlikely that a product that Microsoft claims will have the same driver support, graphics, audio, storage subsystems, and full backward compatibility for apps and devices will include a fundamental rewrite of the central kernel code.Stripped-down 'MinWin' Kernel to Be at the Core of Windows 7 and More (ZDNet)Microsoft (Slightly) Lifts Curtains on Windows 7 (InformationWeek)There is no doubting that Microsoft has done a lot to push the computing industry forward. Unfortunately, one thing that has been constant is that with every OS release, the base operating system gets more and more bloated. A big part of this trend has been the major increases in the power of computer hardware, but for normal, everyday business uses, I haven't seen major increases in application responsiveness in a number of years. Do you think Microsoft will ever slim down Windows or will it go the same way as federal spending, always expanding?